St Vincent Opens First Medical Marijuana Lounge

-
One Caribbean Nation.


St Vincent opens first medical marijuana lounge
KINGSTOWN – Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar is encouraging traditional growers of marijuana to apply for permits to plant the crop under the government’s medicinal cannabis regime.
“There have always been traditional cultivators. And first of all, I want to congratulate the traditional cultivators who have gone to the medicinal cannabis authority, and have received their licenses,” Caesar told iWitness News on Friday, at Canash Bay, where Greenhouse Café, a medical marijuana consumption lounge was opened at Coconut Grove.
At Friday’s event, three doctors prescribed medical marijuana products after consultations with patients.
Following the consultation, the Medical Cannabis Authority issued the patients a permit to buy medical ganja products for a year.

The patients could also fill their prescription at the dispensary at the venue and use the medical marijuana products at the lounge. iWitness News asked Caesar, who also has ministerial responsibility for Industry, what he would say to people who were traditionally involved in marijuana, and might have hard feelings about what is taking place at Greenhouse Café. iWitness News asked the minister to respond to the view that these growers had traditionally invested the time and taken all the risk to build the nation’s reputation for cannabis but other people are now benefiting under the legal regime.
“I am happy that you asked the question, because from time to time — and we see in newspapers — persons who are still arrested for possession of cannabis,” Caesar said.
He said that in those instances, he would ask himself and those positioned to advised him, whether the person had a licence to cultivate marijuana.
“Now, it’s something like about $500 or less now, probably $100 for a license as a traditional cultivator,” he said and urged traditional growers to obtain a license, even as he said he believes “about 80 per cent of the traditional cultivators already have licences… “And really and truly I want to use this opportunity to encourage traditional cultivators to go and register and get your licenses. I know that person sometimes have problems with lands — they don’t have adequate lands. Well, leave a report there. Let’s see how we can work together.”
A composite image of Greenhouse Café and some of the products available at its dispensary on Friday, May 6, 2022.
He, however, noted that building something like the facility in Canash where the medical marijuana cafe is located “costs a lot of money.
“A traditional cultivator may not have the money to do something like this. And what we are doing, we have witnessed already where, for example, traditional cultivators have formed themselves into cooperatives . . . ”
Caesar mentioned RASFARCO, a group of Rastafari, who have a memorandum of understanding with Green Lava, a medical marijuana company, that will buy about 20 per cent of what RASFARCO produces.
“Producing at the quality to be integrated into that system also is a hurdle and we have provided assistance and we will continue to provide assistance to these traditional cultivators and groups so that we can be fully integrated,” Caesar said.
He said he expects over the next two or three years “that we will witness a further integration of traditional cultivators as stakeholders in the cannabis value chain in St. Vincent and Grenadines.
(iWitness News)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Barbados Elections 2013 and Cash

-
Image
The Mahogany Coconut Group submits that the real vote buying is in the upper echelons of our society. What we witnessed on Election Day was some voters getting   cash, cell phones, IPods and a bill paid here and there. The real votes were bought by those shadows- black and white, - who Dr. Don Blackman referred to a few decades ago! Of course Dr. Blackman talked only about white shadows but the corporate landscape has dramatically changed over the years – we now have shadows of all colors and ethnicities. While we shout from the roof tops about what took place on elections day, we bury our heads in the proverbial sand, by refusing to ask one simple question: How did the two political parties, both claiming to be rather financially impoverished, raise a conservative estimate of over twenty million dollars to pour into a three week campaign? We ask Dale Marshall (BLP) to tell us about the successful “cake sales and car washes” that raised their money. We ask Ronald Jones (DLP) to t
Read more

International Women's Day : Our Caribbean Women, Our Hope

-
Image
One Caribbean Nation As we celebrate International Womens’ Day, we are cognizant of the role our Caribbean women have played in the cultural social and economic growth of our region and evolving Caribbean civilization. They , like our men , have risen from the depths and decadence of slavery , to the highest political and corporate ladders in the region. They have given birth, to millions and have made and continue to make significant contributions to those in the Diaspora. In many cases, where they were not the biological mothers, they nurtured, cared and developed those , who were deprived of parenthood , and socio-economic hope. They are in our classrooms, directing young and fragile minds , how to navigate a world that we in the region , must forever avoid being dragged into conflicts of the so-called super powers. They are pursuing all the opportunities of our tertiary educational institutions, including the University of the West Undies, often in higher numbers than our men. I
Read more